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Back in April 2014, footage from an aborted Darth Maul video game hit the net. Devloped by Red Fly Studio, Battle of the Sith Lords was to have been a stealth-action game following the striking villain of The Phantom Menace. The title had been in production since 2010, but was killed by Disney's buyout of Lucasfilm -- the same deal that ultimately scuppered even Lucasarts' own highly-anticipated Star Wars 1313.

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Now though, with Star Wars: Battlefront on the cusp of release, Red Fly is looking to resurrect the game, with plans to pitch it to current Star Wars games license holder EA.

In an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, Red Fly's Dan Borth said "We are currently working on a full next gen demo of all things Maul to show to the powers that be. It's been a lot of work on our off time." "We have been burning a candle for this game since it was killed in hopes we can get it turned back on again," Borth added. "IF that is to happen we need to approach EA with a demo that will impress them. I think we have that or are close to it. Still, it is completely not up to us."

The 2010 version of the game was both blessed and cursed by involvement from Star Wars creator George Lucas. "He was more involved than I ever expected him to be. We met with him which was amazing for us," revealed Borth. "Lucasarts used to be an amazing place for games but something happened when budgets kept rising and rising. He is a genius, so I think he gets [video games] but I don't think it's the most interesting thing for him."

Red Fly was, however, stymied by a lack of communication from higher up the Star Wars food chain. Darth Maul -- spoilers! -- actually survived his fatal bisection during The Phantom Menace, returning during the events of The Clone Wars animated series. However, no one at Lucasfilm would reveal these details to the developers, leaving them uncertain of what, if anything, they could do with the character.

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Borth did say that the abandoned game would have followed "young Maul [from] age 9 or 11 to right before Episode I. We wanted to show what he went through to become a Sith. Showcase the torture the Emperor put him through. Show how you as the player would have made the same mistakes and ended up a Sith." "We felt that Maul could be a character that you cheered for because he was so ferocious. Like a wild animal," he added. "We didn't want to humanize Maul like Dexter but we wanted to explain what happened to him and you could see why he turned out the way he did." Borth also said sections of the game would follow Darth Krayt.

However, when a user pointed out that all of the marketing surrounding Battlefront had been focused on the classic trilogy -- A New Hope through Return of the Jedi -- rather than the prequels, Borth said that Red Fly would be open to reskinning the game with a new character, or one more closely tied to the classics or upcoming The Force Awakens. "Hopefully EA will see the value in us reskinning our combat mechanic to be more in line with what they are thinking for Star Wars if they are not interested in Maul," he said.

As for what's next, Borth said that to get Maul back in production, in whatever form, it will require impressing the right people. "We would need to complete our vertical slice of the game -- a fully functioning complete portion of the game or as close to it as possible and put it in front of EA, and also talk with Disney. EA has the rights to Star Wars on console and PC so it would be up to them to greenlight it. For them, they would need to be convinced we could do the game and that it fit into their new vision."